RHBA-2011:1040 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated SysVinit package that fixes several bugs is now available for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5.

Description

The SysVinit package contains a group of processes that control the basic
functions of your system. SysVinit includes the init program, which is the first
program started by the Linux kernel when the system boots. The init program then
controls the starting up and shutting down of all other programs.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Prior to this update, the command "pidof" did not return a process identifier

(PID) if run as the root user and the path name began with "/". The problem is
resolved in this update so that "pidof" now returns the PID as expected.
(BZ#507382, BZ#589668)

• Prior to this update, the command "pidof" unexpectedly issued an error message

under certain circumstances. The error message was similar to "can't get program
name from /proc/[pid]/stat", or "can't read sid from /proc/[pid]/stat". This
unintended behavior is corrected with this update and no longer occurs.
(BZ#592956)

• Prior to this update, using the command "last" to view current and previous

logins displayed a truncated username if the username was over 8 characters
long. With this update, the option "-w" / "--wide" has been added to the "last"
command to support wide output. (BZ#673533)

• Prior to this update, non-privileged users could have received incorrect

service status information when running the command "service [service] status".
The problem is fixed in this update so that after running the command, the
service status information is correctly displayed along with an error message
indicating that the command was run by a non-privileged user. (BZ#684881)

• Prior to this update, when a user logged in from an IPv6 host and the command

"last" was used to display the IP address, the command "last" displayed an
incorrect IPv4 format address, which only included the first 32 bits of the
actual IPv6 address. The problem is fixed so that the command "last" now
displays the correct IPv6 format address. (BZ#690939)

Users are advised to upgrade to this updated SysVinit package, which fixes these
bugs.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to
use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 589668 - pidof failed to get the pid with full path
• BZ - 592956 - pidof sometimes reports an error message unexpectedly.
• BZ - 673533 - 'last' command in sysVinit truncates usernames
• BZ - 684881 - In RHEL5, non-privileged users can receive incorrect service status information

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)